• YOU reported official statistics showing that Camden has one of the biggest pest problems in the UK (Pest problems are revealed, News in Brief, December 7).

In 2015/2016 the council team were called out a staggering 1,252 times to deal with mice as well as over 270 times to deal with cockroaches.

Sadly this won’t surprise residents who have been consistently complaining about mice, rats, and other disgusting pests. They have warned that the council’s cuts to bin collections risk exacerbating a pest problem which is already blighting our borough.

The BBC’s excellent Blue Planet 2 should serve as a reminder for us all about our duty to leave the planet in a better condition than we found it.

So it’s key that the council supports residents and businesses to reduce waste, reuse where possible, and recycle where not.

But their decision to cut bin collections to once a fortnight wasn’t to do with recycling. In fact it also broke a specific manifesto commitment which the Labour Party made to keep weekly collections.

Since the cut in bin collections, we have heard endless reports of greater fly-tipping and rubbish problems across the borough.

At the same time the council is failing to empty litter bins properly, so rubbish is left lying in the street. Over the last fortnight various bins including on Fitzjohns Avenue, Trinity Walk, and on Belsize Park, have repeatedly been over-flowing.

I’ve also reported multiple fly-tipping problems. No wonder there’s a pest problem.

The council was already called out more than four times a day, on average, to tackle pests.
And those figures were from before the cuts to bin collections. They may well be much worse now.

Pest problems are unpleasant and unhygienic. That’s why the Conservative party is committed to restoring weekly bin collections to all Camden households, and to tackling rubbish, including by increasing the fines for fly-tipping.

HENRY NEWMAN
Frognal & Fitzjohns Conservatives